2 weeks ago
23
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature
Cooper suggests asylum seekers being moved out of hotels could be housed in warehouses instead
Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has suggested that warehouses could be used to house some of the asylum seekers currently being put up in hotels.
The government has repeatedly said it wants to stop the use of hotels for asylum seekers by the end of this parliament, but ministers have not given details of what replacement housing might be used.
In an interview with LBC this morning, asked what alternative accommodation might be used, Cooper said:
I think it’s a mix of things. First of all, you actually have to shrink the whole asylum system. So we actually need to have fewer people in the asylum system in the first place, fewer people needing accommodation. That has to be at the core of this. It’s been allowed to expand in a way that is out of control.
And then, yes, we do also want to see alternative sites, more appropriate sites, including looking at military and industrial sites as well.
Asked what she meant by “industrial sites”, Cooper said the Home Office would provide further details in due course. When the presenter, Nick Ferrari, pressed her repeatedy to say if this could mean asylum seekers being housed in warehouses, Cooper eventually replied:
That’s one of the things that’s been looked at. But we will provide updates when we’ve got the practical plans.
Cooper also said she did not want to announce measures before she knew if she could deliver them because that was “what the previous government did”.
Cooper plays down risk of French government's confidence vote scuppering returns deal with UK
In an interview with Sky News this morning Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, declined to guarantee that migrants will definitely be sent back across the channel this month as part of a returns agreement with France.
Asked for the exact date of the first returns, Cooper replied: “It will be later this month.”
Asked if the risk of the French government being toppled in a confidence vote might scupper the deal, Cooper insisted the UK would “continue to work” with France.
Pressed for a guarantee that returns would take place, she replied:
We expect the first returns to take place this month. But I’ve always said from the very beginning on this, it’s a pilot scheme and it needs to build up over time.
Home Office to warn foreign students off making asylum claims when courses end to extend stay in UK
In interviews this morning Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, confirmed that the government will be contacting international students telling them that if they overstay their visas, they will be removed. The Home Office is concerned about the growing number of people who come to the UK legally on student visas but then claim asylum when they are meant to return home.
According to the BBC, students will be sent text messages and emails saying:
If you submit an asylum claim that lacks merit, it will be swiftly and robustly refused.
Any request for asylum support will be assessed against destitution criteria. If you do not meet the criteria, you will not receive support.
If you have no legal right to remain in the UK, you must leave. If you don’t, we will remove you.
In an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning, Cooper said there was a problem with international students “claiming asylum as they come to the end of their visa, even when things haven’t changed in their home country”.
She went on:
If nothing has changed in their country, people should not be claiming asylum at the end of a student course. We need to clamp down on that and that’s why we’re sending these messages to be very clear to people – the asylum system is not for people who just want to extend their visas.
Cooper rejects claims Reeves has been sidelined on economic policy by No 10 mini-reshuffle
Good morning. Kemi Badenoch has a big speech this morning (albeit one extensively trailed), the Greens are announcing the results of their leadership contest, but there is still considerable focus on what is happening in Downing Street, where Keir Starmer will chair the first cabinet to be attended by Darren Jones in his new role as chief secretary to the PM. As Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report in the Guardian’s splash, Starmer’s mini-reshuffle is being seen as an attempt “to wrest back control of economic policy from the Treasury”.
Other papers have offered a more brutal intepretation, writing this up as Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, being marginalised.
This morning Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, has been touring the studios. Mostly her interviews have focused on the asylum system (more on that soon), but she was also asked about the Downing Street shake-up. Asked on Sky News if Reeves was being sidelined, Cooper replied:
I don’t think so at all. Quite the reverse. I think the prime minister and the chancellor have always worked extremely closely together and continue to do so.
The mini-reshuffle means that Starmer, who has not had an heavyweight economic adviser in No 10 with the clout to take on the Treasury toe-to-toe, now has Jones, previously Reeves’s well-regarded deputy, and Minouche Shafik, a former deputy governor of the Bank of England, reporting directly to him.
Asked if the reshuffle meant No 10 would have more input into this year’s budget than it had last year, Cooper replied:
In my experience through successive chancellors through very many years, ultimately, the chancellor always writes the budget, because that’s the nature of the complex mix of things, but always with conversations and discussions with the prime minister throughout, so you get that strong support.
(The more accurate answer is ‘yes, of course, that’s the whole point’ – as Pippa and Jess explain in their story.)
Of course, you would expect Cooper to reply like this. But Reeves will probably welcome what she said. And Reeves needs some good news. As Graeme Wearden reports, long-term government borrowing costs have just hit their highest level for 27 years.
Here is the agenda for the day.
11am: The Green party of England and Wales announces the results of its leadership contest. As Aletha Adu reports, Zack Polanski is expected to win.
11am: Keir Starmer chairs cabinet.
11am: Kemi Badenoch gives a speech to the Society of Petroleum Engineers Offshore Europe conference in Aberdeen. As the Tories have been briefing since the weekend, she will say that a future Conservative government would maximise the extraction of oil and gas from the North Sea.
11.30am: David Lammy, the foreign secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
After 12.30pm: MPs start debating the second reading of the English devolution and community empowerment bill.
Also, at some point today, the government is publishing its new sentencing bill.
If you want to contact me, please post a message below the line when comments are open (normally between 10am and 3pm at the moment), or message me on social media. I can’t read all the messages BTL, but if you put “Andrew” in a message aimed at me, I am more likely to see it because I search for posts containing that word.
If you want to flag something up urgently, it is best to use social media. You can reach me on Bluesky at @andrewsparrowgdn.bsky.social. The Guardian has given up posting from its official accounts on X, but individual Guardian journalists are there, I still have my account, and if you message me there at @AndrewSparrow, I will see it and respond if necessary.
I find it very helpful when readers point out mistakes, even minor typos. No error is too small to correct. And I find your questions very interesting too. I can’t promise to reply to them all, but I will try to reply to as many as I can, either BTL or sometimes in the blog.
